In-situ tri-atomic hydrogen production, stabilization and concentration

ABSTRACT

A system for producing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen includes a source of liquid hydrogen in the form of para-hydrogen, a piping system through which the liquid hydrogen flows, an injection point for combining the liquid hydrogen in the form of para-hydrogen with third hydrogen atoms all with the same proton spin to form H 3  all with the same net magnetic orientation, and a continuous magnetic field for maintaining the magnetic orientation. The system further has a storage tank for storing concentrated liquid H 3  molecules for use as a propellant.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/988,655, filed Nov. 15, 2004, entitled IN-SITUTRI-ATOMIC HYDROGEN PRODUCTION, STABILIZATION AND CONCENTRATION, By JohnM. Humphrey et al.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and a process for producing,stabilizing and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen for high specificimpulse rocket and air-breathing propulsion systems.

(2) Prior Art

The economical exploration of space requires a substantial increase inspecific impulse because the single stage missions that are key to theeconomic exploration of space lie beyond the capabilities of LOX/LH2propulsion systems. The relationship between achievable payload fractionand required ideal delta V are presented in FIGS. 1 and 2 for a range ofspecific impulse values and are compared to the requirement for severalimportant missions. FIG. 1 uses a structure fraction ((weight ofnon-payload structure and residual propellant weight)/weight of usefulpropellant) of 0.1 which is considered achievable for the missionslisted and FIG. 2 use a structure fraction of 0.2 which is considered tobe more realistic for the recoverable single stage Earth to Low EarthOrbit (LEO) mission.

For the mission parameters used in the study, single stage rockets usingLOX/LH2 with a specific impulse of 460 seconds and a structure fractionof 0.1 achieve about a 6% payload fraction for geosynchronous satelliteplacement and recovery and about a 3% payload fraction for either anexpendable LEO or a recoverable LEO to lunar orbit shuttle. Such LOX/LH2rockets are unable to achieve any useful payload for a recoverabletrans-Martian injection mission. However increasing the Specific Impulsefrom 460 seconds to 600 seconds increases the payload fractions for theabove missions from 6%/3%/0% to 15%/10%/3% respectively and increasingthe Specific Impulse to 900 seconds increases the payload fractions to avery respectable 30%/26%/18%. As shown in FIG. 2, for the recoverablesingle stage to orbit mission that is fundamental to all deeper spacemissions, LOX/LH2 falls far short of achieving a useful payload. Howeverspecific impulse values of from 750 seconds to 900 seconds could achievepayload fractions of between 12% and 20%.

Atomic hydrogen has for many years been an illusive goal of rocketpropellant chemists. Atomic hydrogen has a theoretical specific impulseof over 2000 seconds, but the challenges of atomic hydrogen productionand storage have yet to be overcome. Tri-atomic hydrogen offers apotential approach to achieving a significant fraction of theperformance improvement advantages of atomic hydrogen. Depending on thebinding energy of the third hydrogen atom, the energy release oftri-atomic hydrogen may be at best ⅓ of the energy release of atomichydrogen. However, with specific impulse proportional to the square rootof T/M (propellant gas stagnation temperature/molecular weight),tri-atomic hydrogen should have a specific impulse potential of around1000 seconds.

The economical exploration of space requires the invention andcommercialization of high thrust propulsion systems with a specificimpulse of at least 600 seconds and more desirably of 750 seconds orabove. Tri-atomic hydrogen offers a potential specific impulse in thisrange and may provide a quantum leap in mankind's exploration of space.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide asystem for producing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomichydrogen.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process forproducing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen.

The foregoing objects are attained by the system and process of thepresent invention.

In accordance with the present invention, a system for producing,stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen broadly comprises asource of liquid hydrogen in the form of para-hydrogen (which hasoppositely directed proton spins), means for combining the para-hydrogenwith third hydrogen atoms, such third atoms all having the same protonspin, to form H₃ all with the same net magnetic orientation, and meansfor maintaining the magnetic orientation with a continuous magneticfield.

Further, in accordance with the present invention, a process forproducing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen broadlycomprises the steps of providing a source of liquid hydrogen in the formof para-hydrogen (which has oppositely directed proton spins), combiningthe para-hydrogen with third hydrogen atoms, such third atoms all havingthe same proton spin, to form H₃ all with the same net magneticorientation, and maintaining the magnetic orientation with a continuousmagnetic field.

Other details of the in-situ tri-atomic hydrogen production,stabilization, and concentration system and process, as well as otherobjects and advantages attendant thereto, are set forth in the followingdetailed description and the accompanying drawings wherein likereference numbers depict like elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a graph showing Delta V vs. Payload Fraction and Isp for aStructure Fraction of 0.1;

FIG. 2 is a graph showing Delta V vs. Payload Fraction and Isp for aStructure Fraction of 0.2; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a system for producing,stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

The present invention relates to a system and a process for producing,stabilizing and concentrating tri-atomic hydrogen for high specificimpulse rocket and air-breathing propulsion systems and to a propellantformed by said system and process.

FIG. 3 represents a system 10 for producing, stabilizing, andconcentrating tri-atomic hydrogen. The system 10 includes a tank 12 ofliquid hydrogen that has been held in liquid form long enough for thehydrogen molecules to transform to para-hydrogen where the spins of theprotons in the two hydrogen atoms are in opposite directions. A pump 14circulates the liquid hydrogen through a piping or flow system to andthrough a spinning tank 16. While vortex flow separation is more common,the present invention utilizes a centrifugal separation approach tominimize flow disruption relative to the magnetic field during theseparation process. The radial acceleration equals the radius times (therotational speed in radians/sec)².

The spinning tank 16 preferably has a plurality of baffles 18 to extendthe transit time of the liquid hydrogen through the spinning tank 16and, more importantly, to force the flowing liquid hydrogen well offcenterline in its passage through the spinning tank 16. The design ofthe spinning tank 16, e.g. size and rotation rate, depends on thedensity difference between the H₂ and H₃. The spinning tank 16 providescentrifugal separation of the liquid tri-atomic and diatomic hydrogen asa result of a significant density difference between the liquids. Sincetri-atomic hydrogen is more dense, it can be extracted at the periphery.Any suitable means known in the art may be used to spin the tank 16.

A flow 20 of gaseous hydrogen passes through an electric arc 22 insidean RF field dissociator, such as an RF oscillator, before entering anon-homogeneous magnetic flow field 24. Gas dissociation and ionizationusing an RF oscillator is sometimes preferred as this approach does notintroduce material from any electrodes. However, in some instances, theoscillating RF field may interfere with the flow separation magneticfield. In these instances, a simple electric discharge may be used as apreferred approach. The voltage which is used should be high enough toboth ionize and dissociate the hydrogen so that the magnetic field canselect on proton spin.

The electric arc 22 both dissociates hydrogen molecules and ionizes theindividual hydrogen atoms. A non-homogeneous magnetic flow field 24separates the ionized and dissociated hydrogen atoms by the spin oftheir protons.

A first hydrogen stream 26 of like spin protons is thus created and theninjected into the stream of liquid hydrogen via passageway 27. A secondhydrogen stream 28 of opposite spin protons is simply discharged throughoutlet 30. As shown in FIG. 3, the spin orientation of the protons maybe maintained by a continuous magnetic field through the passageway 27to the spinning tank 16. In a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, the continuous magnetic field may be generated by a DCcurrent through cryogenically cooled electrical coils around the liquidhydrogen piping or by an equivalent approach. The field generated by aDC current through a coil of wires around the pipe generates acontinuous magnetic field to maintain the orientation of thetri-hydrogen ions. If desired, other approaches may be used.

The object of dispersing hydrogen ions into the stream of liquidhydrogen is to cool the hydrogen ions through collisions with hydrogenmolecules and then encourage the hydrogen ions to associate with liquidhydrogen molecules to form H₃ ⁺. The natural repulsion of both theinjected H⁺ ions and the newly formed H₃ ⁺ ions discourages interactionswith similar ions during this cooldown process.

Downstream of the injection point (passageway 27), the stream of liquidhydrogen passes through a negatively charged grid 32. The negativelycharged grid 32 is located far enough downstream of the H⁺ injectionpoint (passageway 27) to allow the H₃ ⁺ ions to reach thermalequilibrium with the liquid H₂. The object of the negatively chargedgrid 32 is to convert the H₃ ⁺ ions to liquid H₃ molecules which arestable at the cryogenic temperature of the flow.

A key feature of the present invention is the use of para-hydrogencombined with third hydrogen atoms all with the same proton spin to formliquid H₃ molecules all with the same net magnetic orientation, whichorientation is maintained with a continuous magnetic field. Since theliquid H₃ molecules thus created all consist of two hydrogen atoms withopposite spin (i.e. para-hydrogen) and one atom of hydrogen all with thesame spin orientation maintained by the magnetic field, the resultingliquid H₃ molecules should be magnetically repulsive and therefore morestable than a mixture of H₃ molecules with randomly oriented magneticmoments. The process of the present invention is used to produce H₃molecules which exhibit long term stability at liquid hydrogentemperatures for use as a rocket mono-propellant or as an exothermicfuel in either rocket or air breathing propulsion applications.

The spinning tank 16 concentrates the liquid H₃ from the liquid H₂ basedon the density difference of the two liquids. This is because thespinning tank 16 acts as a kind of centrifuge. The concentrated liquidH₃ is extracted from the periphery of the tank 16 by gradually bleedingit off and is stored in a storage tank 34 for use as a propellant. Thestorage tank 34 also preferably has a continuous magnetic field aboutit. The continuous magnetic field may be generated by wrapping coils ofwire 36 around the tank 34 and maintaining a DC current through thewires 36 to align the molecules in the direction of their third atomspin to maintain long term H₃ stability. Reducing the storagetemperature further improves the long term H₃ stability.

Liquid hydrogen (H₂) boils at about 20 degrees Kelvin. Keeping thetemperature of the H₃ close to 0 degrees Kelvin is desirable to increaseits half life, both directly and in support of the common third protonspin construction and magnetic field maintenance of the H₃ molecule. Thesame refrigeration system that produces the liquid hydrogen may be suedto maintain the temperature that is needed.

Thermal decomposition is the baseline approach for using liquid H₃ as apropellant. When used as a rocket monopropellant, the liquid H₃ may beinjected into a heated pressurized chamber where the decomposition of H₃molecules and the reformation of H₂ molecules would create a hot streamof low molecular weight exhaust products. When used in high performanceair breathing applications, such as ramjets and scramjets, thedecomposition of H₃ molecules to H₂+H and the rapid combustion of theheated H atoms with air facilitates both higher specific impulse andsustained combustion under conditions that are presently difficult toachieve.

The present invention provides a process and a system to respond to theneeds for a higher specific impulse propellant for space propulsion andhigh performance air breathing propulsion applications through theproduction, concentration, storage and eventual propulsive decompositionof tri-atomic hydrogen.

It is apparent that there has been provided in accordance with thepresent invention an in-situ tri-atomic hydrogen production,stabilization, and concentration system and process which fullysatisfies the objects, means, and advantages set forth hereinbefore.While the present invention has been described in the context ofspecific embodiments thereof, other alternatives, modifications, andvariations will become apparent to those skilled in the art having readthe foregoing description. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace thosealternatives, modifications, and variations as fall within the broadscope of the appended claims.

1. A system for producing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomichydrogen comprising: a source of liquid hydrogen in the form ofpara-hydrogen; means for combining said para-hydrogen with thirdhydrogen atoms each having the same proton spin to form liquid H₃molecules all with the same net magnetic orientation; and means formaintaining said magnetic orientation in said liquid H₃ molecules with acontinuous magnetic field.
 2. A system according to claim 1, whereinsaid para-hydrogen source comprises a tank containing liquid hydrogenthat has been held in liquid form long enough for hydrogen molecules totransform to said para-hydrogen form.
 3. A system according to claim 1,further comprising a piping system through which a stream of said liquidhydrogen flows and a pump for circulating said liquid hydrogen streamthrough said piping system.
 4. A system according to claim 1, furthercomprising means for concentrating said liquid H₃ molecules.
 5. A systemaccording to claim 4, wherein said concentrating means comprises aspinning tank.
 6. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spinningtank has means for extending transit time of said liquid hydrogenthrough said spinning tank and for forcing the liquid hydrogen offcenterline in its passage through the spinning tank.
 7. A systemaccording to claim 6, wherein said transit time extending and forcingmeans comprises a plurality of flow baffles.
 8. A system according toclaim 1, wherein said combining means comprises means for providing aflow of gaseous hydrogen, means for dissociating hydrogen molecules andionizing individual hydrogen atoms in said gaseous hydrogen, and meansfor separating the ionized hydrogen atoms by the spin of their protons.9. A system according to claim 8, wherein said dissociating meanscomprises an electric arc.
 10. A system according to claim 8, whereinsaid separating means comprises means for creating a magnetic flow fieldaround said gaseous hydrogen flow.
 11. A system according to claim 8,wherein said combining means further comprises means for injecting afirst stream of like spin protons into said liquid hydrogen stream. 12.A system according to claim 11, further comprising means for discharginga second stream of opposite spin protons.
 13. A system according toclaim 11, further comprising means for converting H₃ ions to H₃molecules positioned downstream of said injecting means.
 14. A systemaccording to claim 13, wherein said converting means comprises anegatively charged grid.
 15. A system according to claim 1, furthercomprising a storage tank for storing concentrated liquid H₃ moleculesand means for creating a magnetic field for aligning the molecules inthe direction of their third atom spin.
 16. A system according to claim1, wherein said stream of liquid hydrogen flows through a piping systemand said magnetic orientation maintaining means comprises means forgenerating a magnetic field around a portion of said piping system. 17.A process for producing, stabilizing, and concentrating tri-atomichydrogen comprising the steps of: providing a source of liquid hydrogenin the form of para-hydrogen; combining said para-hydrogen with thirdhydrogen atoms all with the same proton spin to form liquid H₃ moleculesall with the same net magnetic orientation; and maintaining saidmagnetic orientation with a continuous magnetic field.
 18. A processaccording to claim 17, further comprising circulating a stream of saidliquid hydrogen through a piping system to a spinning tank.
 19. Aprocess according to claim 18, further comprising concentrating liquidH₃ molecules in said spinning tank.
 20. A process according to claim 19,wherein said concentrating step comprises passing said stream of liquidhydrogen through means for extending the transit time of the liquidhydrogen stream through the spinning tank and for forcing the liquidhydrogen stream off centerline as said stream of liquid hydrogen passesthrough said spinning tank.
 21. A process according to claim 17, whereinsaid combining step comprises providing a flow of gaseous hydrogen,passing said hydrogen through an electric arc to dissociate hydrogenmolecules and ionizing individual hydrogen atoms, and magneticallyseparating said ionized hydrogen atoms by the spin of their protons. 22.A process according to claim 21, wherein said combining step furthercomprises injecting a first stream of like spin protons into said liquidhydrogen stream.
 23. A process according to claim 22, wherein saidcombining step further comprises discharging a second stream of oppositespin protons.
 24. A process according to claim 17, wherein saidmaintaining step comprises creating a magnetic field around a portion ofthe piping through which said stream of liquid hydrogen flows.
 25. Aprocess according to claim 17, further comprising passing said combinedliquid hydrogen stream and said third hydrogen atoms through anegatively charged grid to convert H₃ ⁺ ions to said liquid H₃molecules.
 26. A process according to claim 17, further comprisingstoring concentrated liquid H₃ molecules in a storage tank.
 27. Aprocess according to claim 26, further comprising applying a magneticfield to said storage tank to align the liquid H₃ molecules in adirection of their third atom spin.
 28. A process according to claim 26,further comprising reducing storage temperature in said storage tank.29. A propellant comprising liquid H₃ molecules having said moleculesaligned in a direction of a third atom spin.
 30. A process for forming apropellant comprising: providing a source of liquid hydrogen in the formof para-hydrogen; passing a stream of said liquid hydrogen through aflow system; injecting hydrogen ions having like spin protons into thestream of said liquid hydrogen; maintaining the spin orientation of saidprotons; converting H₃ ⁺ ions in said liquid hydrogen to liquid H₃molecules which are stable at cryogenic temperature; concentrating theliquid H₃ molecules from liquid H₂; and extracting the liquid H₃molecules and storing the liquid H₃ molecules for use as a propellant.31. A process according to claim 30, further comprising forming saidhydrogen ions having like spin protons by providing a flow of gaseoushydrogen, passing said flow through an electric arc to dissociatehydrogen molecules and ionize individual hydrogen atoms, and separatingthe ionized hydrogen atoms by proton spin.
 32. A process according toclaim 31, wherein said separating step comprises subjecting said ionizedhydrogen atoms to a magnetic field.
 33. A process according to claim 32,further comprising discharging a stream of opposite spin protons throughan outlet.
 34. A process according to claim 30, wherein said convertingstep comprises passing said liquid hydrogen stream through a negativelycharged grid.
 35. A process according to claim 30, wherein saidconcentrating step comprises passing the liquid hydrogen stream into aspinning tank having a plurality of baffles for extending the transittime of the liquid hydrogen through the spinning tank and to force theflowing liquid hydrogen off centerline as said liquid hydrogen passesthrough said spinning tank.